Trump’s EO mandates
that
federal agencies identify, revise, and potentially rescind any policies
or regulations that could burden the production or use of domestic
energy resources – specifically oil, natural gas, coal, and nuclear
energy.

This Executive Order takes our nation in a destructive direction on climate change.

“This Executive Order takes our nation in a destructive direction on
climate change,” said Emily Wirzba, Policy Associate for Sustainable
Energy and Environment at FCNL. “As a global leader, the US must
meaningfully address climate change, protect vulnerable communities, and
preserve God’s creation. Instead of dismantling vital climate
infrastructure, the President should work with the bipartisan group of
legislators in Congress that are eager to address climate change through
economically viable solutions.”

FCNL is deeply concerned that this EO will undermine the U.S.’s leadership
on climate change, and make it difficult to meet the U.S. commitment of
reducing greenhouse gas emissions 26-28% by 2025 under the international
Paris agreement.

What the Executive Order Will Do

Rewrite the Clean Power Plan (CPP) – Obama’s signature rule to
reduce greenhouse gas emissions from existing and future power
plants – and the new source performance standard, which makes it difficult for new coal-fired power plants to be built unless they can capture their carbon emissions and sequester them under the ground.
The EO also asks the federal courts to put their review of the CPP
on hold, effectively ending the government’s legal defense of the
CPP in the courts and beginning the process to dismantle and rewrite
the rule.

Rescind an Obama-era
guidance
that asks federal agencies to consider climate change as they
conduct environmental reviews. Specifically, this guidance
requires that agencies quantify projected greenhouse gas emissions
of proposed federal actions, and counsels agencies to consider
alternatives that would make communities more resilient to the
effects of climate change.

Dismantle the newest “social cost of carbon” metric, which
quantifies potential economic damage from climate change and is
often used to justify environmental regulations, and direct agencies
to return to a 2003 approach to calculate the benefits/costs of
proposed rules.

Rescind Obama’s
Memorandum
on Climate Change and National Security, which directs federal
agencies to ensure that climate change-related impacts are fully
considered in the development of national security doctrine, policy,
and plans.

Re-examine Obama’s strategy to reduce methane
emissions
from oil and gas operations. Under Obama, the goal was to reduce
methane emissions 40% below 2012 levels by 2025 through rules from
the EPA and the Bureau of Land Management.

End the
moratorium
on federal-land coal mining and rescind the hydraulic fracturing
rule that limits fracking for natural gas on federal and
tribal lands.

What's Next

Trump cannot immediately cancel or invalidate all Obama-era climate
rules, but he can direct federal agencies to begin rewriting the rules.
The federal rule-making process can take years to complete, so rewriting
regulations in many cases will also take several years. We expect a
series of lawsuits and legal challenges to ensue, especially since many
of these regulations were initially written because the federal
government was required to by law. For example, if Trump dismantles the
Clean Power Plan, he is legally required to come up with another plan
for reducing emissions.

Importantly, while this EO seeks to undermine the Clean Power Plan, it
says nothing about staying in or leaving the international Paris climate
deal. This is a good sign, and the administration says it is still
deliberating internally about the merits and drawbacks of leaving the
deal. The EO also keeps the EPA’s “endangerment finding” in place, which
is the policy that allows the U.S. to regulate carbon emissions as a
pollutant, and legally undergirds most major climate policy.

While FCNL is deeply concerned about today’s EO, we know that there is a
bipartisan group of legislators in Congress excited to discuss and act
on climate change. Their leadership, and the voices of people across the
country, is more important now than ever.

The partisan narrative on climate change was disrupted today when 17 House Republicans re-introduced a resolution that affirms that climate change is real, human-caused, and needs to be addressed by Congress.

The U.S. Congress is pivotal to national and global efforts to meet the challenge of climate disruption. However, for Congress to be part of the solution, leadership is needed from members of both political parties.

The Friends Committee on National Legislation, the oldest registered religious lobby in Washington, is a nonpartisan Quaker lobby in the public interest. FCNL works with a nationwide network of tens of thousands of people from every state in the U.S. to advocate for social and economic justice, peace, and good government.Join us.

Emily Wirzba

Legislative Representative, Sustainable Energy and Environment

Emily Wirzba leads FCNL’s lobbying work to achieve bipartisan recognition of climate change and action in Congress. Emily meets with members of Congress and their staff to promote FCNL's environmental priorities. She also works closely with FCNL's network across the country to organize constituents to lobby, write, and advocate for bipartisan environmental action in Congress. She currently serves as co-chair of the Washington Interreligious Staff Community's Energy and Ecology Working Group.